28 August 2009

Prior to Franconia's 2009 iron pour, 1200-1500 pounds of iron was the norm for an average pour day. But we were at Franconia Sculpture Park where everything is large scale. We were pouring the 15 artists' molds and dozens of scratch tiles the public sculpted in the park the day of the pour. Although sometimes controversial, pouring the scratch tiles was first priority. If we wanted the community to bring their creations home with them, they needed edges cut off, sand removed, grounded smooth and quenched. This happened due to the heroic efforts of interns and helpers who spent hours of their day at the grinding table. Now for the other 4000lbs of iron to be poured. Our pour teams soon dissolved with artists wanting to pour their own pieces. I understand this, I usually want to pour mine too. Fortunately, we had an amazing core group of iron artists who never left the pour floor so communication stayed open between the furnace operators and the mold captain. The furnace spit out hundreds of pounds before it became a little gummy. Keeping the tap hole open for the final few ladles, everyone's pieces were poured. If we are going to pour 5000 lbs next year, we may want two furnaces. One, with a team of 4 minimum, to run a 100 pound cupalette focusing on the communities scratch tiles and a 300 pound furnace focusing on the artists' molds. Incredible day, incredible dedication , incredible stick-to-it-tiveness, incredible iron artists, incredible sculpture park. make a visit

23 August 2009

Welcome! This video shows a section of molten iron of Suzanne Mahoney's sculpture "Call Me Ishmael", which was the last sculpture poured at Franconia Sculpture Park's 13th annual Community Collaboration Hot Metal Pour on August 1, 2009. The iron artists poured 5000 ponds of iron this year. This site is intended to be a place for Franconia's iron artists to post images and information about these pours.